John Lewis says department store sales hurt by heatwave

LONDON (Reuters) - Sales at British retailer John Lewis' [JLP.UL] [JLPC.UL] department store chain were sharply lower last week, as a spell of hot weather kept shoppers away, it said on Tuesday. As the only British retailer to publish weekly sales data, John Lewis provides the most up-to-date snapshot of shopping behaviour after Britain voted to leave the European Union on June 23, though the data is clouded by year-on-year weather comparisons. The employee-owned firm said department store sales fell 4.3 percent year-on-year to 73.3 million pounds in the week to July 23, having increased 3.8 percent in the previous week. With Britain enjoying its hottest temperatures of the year, John Lewis was clear the weather was to blame for the sales shortfall and made no mention of the Brexit vote in its brief commentary. "The hot weather which settled over the UK last week resulted in a slowdown in sales as Britain basked in the heatwave," it said, though it did note sales of fans and air conditioning units were up over 3,000 percent year-on-year. The group also owns upmarket supermarket chain Waitrose, which benefits from hot and sunny weather. It sales rose 7.2 percent to 131.3 million pounds. John Lewis gave the following sales figures for the latest week compared with a year earlier: Week to July 23 25 weeks to Aug 23 Total sales 2.8 pct 3.4 pct Dept stores -4.3 pct 4.8 pct Food stores 7.2 pct 2.5 pct (Reporting by James Davey; editing by Sarah Young and Louise Heavens)